Influential Israeli Rabbi Ovadia Yosef in hospital

Israel's Shas party, blesses a man after casting his ballot at a polling …more
JERUSALEM (AP) — The spiritual leader of an Israeli ultra-Orthodox political party was hospitalized after a suspected minor stroke in Jerusalem on Saturday, a development that could shake his party's fortunes and mute one of Israel's most influential voices.
Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, 92, is conscious and in a stable condition, Hadassah hospital spokeswoman Etti Dvir said, adding that doctors had requested he remain in the facility for several days for observation and further checks. She did not provide further details on his ailment.
The enigmatic, Baghdad-born Yosef is the chief spiritual adviser of the Shas party, which represents Israeli Jews of Middle Eastern descent. His followers consider his decisions as binding religious law — rare discipline in Israel's otherwise fragmented political landscape.
Israeli media reported he was rushed to Hadassah hospital after collapsing during morning prayers in a synagogue on Saturday morning.
Dr. Yuval Weiss of Hadassah told reporters Saturday night that the rabbi "likely had a very mild stroke."
"He is conscious and fully communicating with those around him," Weiss said. "I hope he can return home in a few days," he said.
Yosef's influence reaches beyond the party, which holds 10 seats in the 120-seat Israeli parliament. Comments from the rabbi, with his trademark turban, gold-embroidered robes and dark glasses, have cast a pall over political debates ranging from whether ultra-Orthodox Jews should be conscripted into Israel's military, to war and peace with Palestinians.
He is known for his fierce statements that have offended widely disparate segments of society, including Holocaust survivors, gays, Palestinians and secular Jews.
The rabbi said during a sermon in August 2010 that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas should "perish from the world" and described Palestinians as "evil, bitter enemies of Israel." He later apologized for the remarks.
In 2007, he said that Israeli soldiers died in battle because they were not religious enough and said the victims of Hurricane Katrina in the U.S. suffered "because they have no God."
In 2008, Shas under his direction forced new elections by refusing to remain in the government after then-prime minister Ehud Olmert resigned.
Olmert's successor, Tzipi Livni, was unable to preserve a governing coalition because Yosef insisted she commit to not discussing the future of Jerusalem in expected peace talks with Palestinians.
Politicians from outside Yosef's party often lobby for his support on tough decisions, including whether to target arch-foe Iran.
Despite his often hawkish stances, Yosef has signaled he would support Israel's withdrawal from the West Bank, a territory Palestinians seek for their future state, if it saves lives.
Shas was predicted to recoup its seats when Israelis vote later in January, but the party's fortunes are unclear if Yosef remains hospitalized.
The rabbi is literally the face of Shas: On the main entrance to Jerusalem, Yosef's face is draped over a large building, urging people to vote for the ultra-Orthodox party, saying they will remember the poor.
Yosef has been hospitalized with heart problems in the past.
Shas party members were unavailable for comment because it is the Jewish Sabbath, when the devout refrain from non-lifesaving work.
Yosef is a highly respected religious scholar, often called the outstanding rabbinical authority of the century from the Sephardic tradition, that of Jews from Arabic-speaking and other Middle Eastern nations.
His insistence that Sephardic tradition is as valid as the European Ashkenazi version of Judaism spawned a religious and cultural awakening among Jews of Middle Eastern, or Mizrahi, background.
He used that influence to transform the Mizrahi Jews from a downtrodden community of immigrants into a proud, powerful force in Israeli politics. Jews who descend from Arabic-speaking countries make up nearly half of Israel's Jewish population.
Yosef came to national prominence when he served as Israel's chief Sephardic rabbi from 1972 to 1983.
Born in the Iraqi capital in 1920, Yosef was four years old when his family moved to Jerusalem.

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Gunmen shoot birdshot at Egypt protesters; 15 hurt

CAIRO (AP) — A dozen masked attackers fired birdshot late Saturday at protesters who have camped outside Egypt's presidential palace in Cairo for the past month, wounding several along with security forces standing watch nearby, witnesses said. It was the latest in a series of shootings of protesters in Egypt.
Paramedic Mohammed Sultan put the total number of wounded in the attack at 15, including nine members of the security forces and six protesters.
The witnesses said attackers also threw Molotov cocktails at protesters' tents, setting some on fire. Footage on Egyptian TV stations showed more people coming to join the protests.
The sit-in was started Dec. 4 by opponents of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi. They are demanding the annulment of Egypt's new Islamist-backed constitution. The document deeply polarized Egyptians but passed by a 64 percent "yes" vote in a referendum in which around 33 percent of voters participated. Critics called the process flawed.
The political conflict has been accompanied by street violence. At least 10 people died in clashes outside the palace on Dec. 5 that broke out when supporters of Morsi attacked the sit-in. Some were reportedly killed by gunfire.
On Dec. 31, gunmen shot and critically wounded a well-known activist at the site of another sit-in in downtown Cairo's Tahrir square. Police said they arrested a cafe owner who told them that he fired on the square after people manning makeshift checkpoints there searched his car and shot at him.
The current attack comes two weeks before the anniversary of the Jan. 25 start of the 2011 uprising that overthrew Mubarak. Activists opposed to Morsi are expected to organize large protests that day.
Earlier Saturday, a Cairo court ordered a religious TV program hosted by a fiery preacher off the air on charges of libeling and defaming a well-known actress, one of three legal reverses that day suffered by Islamists in cases related to the media.
The court ruled that the program "In The Scale" be suspended for 30 days following a lawsuit by Elham Chahine. A widely circulated video clip shows the program's host, Abdullah Badr, accusing Chahine of practicing "prostitution" and "teaching Egyptians how to strip naked, make love and commit adultery."
"Go ask God for forgiveness for your scandals," he says in the August interview. Chahine's lawyer said in court that the actress had been exposed to "insults, cursing and humiliation."
Last month, Badr was sentenced to a year in jail over the same charges. The program is aired on el-Hafiz TV, one of several networks associated with the ultraconservative Salafi Islamist movement.
In another case, a court dropped one of several lawsuits filed against popular satirist Bassem Youssef, known as Egypt's Jon Stewart. Youssef had been accused of "corrupting morals" and violating "religious principles" in his show, "The Program," in which he frequently mocks ultraconservative clerics and Islamists.
He still faces trial on March 9 on charges of insulting President Mohammed Morsi, a lawsuit that was leveled by lawyers associated with the Islamist group from which Morsi hails, the Muslim Brotherhood. This is one of many cases brought against media personalities who criticized the president. Morsi's office maintains that the president has nothing to do with the legal procedures against his critics.
In a separate court cast, a court ruled that Dream TV, a private liberal-leaning network that is sharply critical of the Brotherhood, could resume broadcasting. Egypt's Islamist minister of information Salah Abdel-Makksoud suspended it for an alleged zoning violation and broadcasting from outside an authorized area.
Neither Badr, Youssef nor Dream TV could immediately be reached for comment.

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Christian Orthodox believers celebrate Epiphany

SOFIA, Bulgaria (AP) — Thousands of young men leapt into icy rivers and lakes across eastern Europe on Sunday to retrieve crucifixes cast by priests in ceremonies commemorating the baptism of Jesus Christ.
By tradition, a wooden cross is cast into the water and it is believed that the person who retrieves it will be freed from evil spirits.
In the central Bulgarian city of Kalofer, 350 men in traditional dress waded into the icy Tundzha River with national flags. Led by the town's mayor and encouraged by a folk orchestra and homemade plum brandy, they danced and stomped in the rocky riverbed.
In the Romanian Black Sea port of Constanta, some 3,000 Orthodox believers turned out to watch priests hurl three crosses into the icy sea. Dozens— some wearing diving suits— dived into the waters to retrieve the crosses.
"We the people are so like the sea," said Romanian Orthodox Archbishop Teodosie Tomitanul. "We hope that, as the sea has been calm until now this year, our souls will be just as calm."
Some Orthodox Christian churches, including those in Russia, Egypt, Syria and Lebanon, follow a different calendar, and Sunday was Christmas Eve, with Epiphany on Jan. 19.

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Spain's 'El Nino' lottery hands out $1.1 billion

A lottery showered €840 million ($1.1 billion) on ticket holders in five regions of Spain on Sunday, in the midst of a deep recession and high unemployment.
The "El Nino" (The Child) lottery is held each Feast of the Epiphany — Jan. 6 — and the top prize tickets were sold in Alicante, Leon, Madrid, Murcia and Tenerife. The lottery's name refers to the baby Jesus, who according to tradition was visited this day by three kings of Orient bearing gifts.
The lottery tickets cost €20 ($26), and the most one can win is €200,000 ($260,240). But there's a catch. Thanks to new austerity measures aimed at reviving Spain's ailing economy, anyone who wins above 2,500 euros ($3,250) in the lottery has to pay 20 percent income tax on their windfall.
On Sunday, a cheering crowd gathered outside one ticket office in the southwestern Madrid suburb of Alcorcon where 200 of the winning numbers were sold, totaling €40 million ($52 million) in prize money.
"I am very excited because I really needed this," said Josefina, one of three winners celebrating there. "Now that I've won, I just think I've been very lucky," said Josefina, who declined to give her surname.

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Northern Irish militants seen hijacking flag protests

BELFAST (Reuters) - Pro-British militant groups are instigating riots that have rocked the Northern Irish capital Belfast in the past month, a police officers' representative said on Sunday as officers came under attack again.
The violence stems from protests over the removal of the British flag over Belfast City Hall. It has been among the province's worst since a 1998 peace accord ended 30 years of conflict in which Catholic nationalists seeking union with Ireland fought British forces and mainly Protestant loyalists.
Fireworks, bottles and bricks were flung at officers for a fourth successive night on Sunday although a police spokeswoman said the trouble was not on the scale of the previous night, when police came under attack with petrol bombs and gunfire.
By Sunday, 70 people had been arrested, including a 38-year-old man detained on Saturday on suspicion of attempted murder over the shooting.
Police had said that members of pro-British militant groups helped to orchestrate and had taken part in the first wave of violence in early December. The Police Federation for Northern Ireland (PFNI) said the recent attacks showed this was now clearly the case.
"What it quite clearly demonstrates is the fact that paramilitaries have hijacked this flags protest issue and they have now turned their guns on the police," federation chairman Terry Spence told BBC radio.
"It is very clear that there are leading members of the UVF (Ulster Volunteer Force) who are exploiting this and are organising and orchestrating this violence against police officers who are out there trying to uphold the law and prevent anarchy on our streets."
Both the UVF and Northern Ireland's other main loyalist militant group, the Ulster Freedom Fighters, ceased hostilities in 2007 and decommissioned their stocks of weapons following the signing of the peace deal.
At least 3,600 people were killed in the 30 years of violence before the 1998 peace deal.
In scenes that recalled that earlier strife, pro-British loyalists began rioting in early December after a vote by mostly nationalist pro-Irish councillors to end the century-old tradition of flying Britain's Union flag from the city hall.
"NO STOMACH FOR THIS"
Analysts said that, although the violence was worrying, the small numbers of protesters indicated they might be unable to develop any strength.
"Clearly the violence is a step up in terms of what's happened more recently but they're simply not getting people out on the street," said Peter Shirlow, a professor at Queen's University who has spoken with protesters in recent days.
"Protestants are annoyed about the flag but they're even more annoyed about the violence. There's no stomach for this, that mass mobilisation is just not there anymore."
The police federation's Spence said, however, that it was the most challenging time for police in a decade. Church leaders and community workers held talks behind the scenes on Sunday to try to quell the violence.
Militant Irish nationalists, responsible for the killings of three police officers and two soldiers since an increase in tensions from 2009, have also not reacted violently to the flag protests, limiting any threat to the 15 years of peace.
The British-controlled province's first minister, Peter Robinson, said on Friday that rioters were playing into the hands of nationalist groups who would seek to exploit every opportunity "to further their terror aims".
The moderate nationalist Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) party said on Sunday that shots had been fired using a ball-bearing gun at the house of one its councillors in Belfast, shattering windows.

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Different challenges in Central African Rep., Mali

BANGUI, Central African Republic (AP) — Two land-locked, desperately poor African countries are gripped by rebellions in the north that have left huge chunks of both nations outside of government control. Neighboring countries are rushing troops into Central African Republic only a few weeks after rebels started taking towns but Mali's government is still awaiting foreign military help nearly one year after the situation there began unraveling. Here's a look at why there's been quick action in one country, and not in the other.
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THE INSURGENTS
The simple answer lies in the vastly different challenges faced by intervention forces. Northern Mali is home to al-Qaida-linked militants who are stocking weapons and possess stores of Russian-made arms from former Malian army bases as well as from the arsenal of toppled Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi. The local and foreign jihadists there are digging in and training forces in preparation for jihad and to repel an invasion. Central African Republic, by contrast, is dealing with home-grown rebels who are far less organized and have less sophisticated weapons.
The numbers of troops being sent to Central African Republic are relatively small — Republic of Congo, Cameroon and Gabon are each sending about 120 soldiers. The rebels stopped their advances toward the capital on Dec. 29, perhaps at least in part because of the presence of the foreign troops who have threatened to counterattack if the rebels move closer to Bangui, the capital. In Mali, it will take far more than the 3,000 African troops initially proposed for a military operation to be successful in ousting the militants, analysts say.
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THE MISSION
The military objectives are also a stark contrast. In Central African Republic, neighboring nations have a mandate to help stabilize the region between rebel-held towns and the part of the country that is under government control. The intervention force will fire back if fired upon, but so far are not being asked to retake the towns already in rebel hands.
The mission in Mali that foreign forces are slowly gearing up for is far more ambitious. It involves trying to take back a piece of land larger than Texas or France where militants are imposing strict Islamic law, or Shariah. Making things even more complicated there: A military coup last year that created chaos and enabled the rebels to more easily take territory has left the country with a weak federal government and the country's military with a broken command-and-control structure, and with its leaders reluctant to give real power to the civilians.
"In Mali you have a very undefined mission. What does it mean to retake the country and give it back to government forces that were not able to hold it in the first place?" noted Jennifer Cooke, director of the Africa program at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Central African Republic's situation "is a more limited, defined and frankly somewhat easier mission in the military sense," she said.
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THE TERRAIN
Northern Mali is a scorching desert that is unfamiliar to many of the troops who would be coming from the West African regional bloc of countries known as ECOWAS. By contrast, Central African Republic's neighbors already have been pulled into past rebellions in the country.
Chadian forces helped propel President Francois Bozize into power in 2003 and they have assisted him in putting down past rebellions here.
"These forces — particularly the Chadians — have been there before," Cooke said. "They know the players, they have an interlocutor in Bozize however fragile he is. This is familiar territory to them."
The Economic Community of Central African States, or ECCAS, also already had established a peacekeeping force in Central African Republic known as MICOPAX.
"From the beginning, they knew that they needed to have troops on the ground. MICOPAX was already there, had already been deployed there. There was already a structure in place," said Thierry Vircoulon, project director for Central Africa at the International Crisis Group.
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DIFFERING MOTIVATIONS
The rebels in Central African Republic are made up of four separate groups all known by their French acronyms — UFDR, CPJP, FDPC and CPSK. They are collectively known as Seleka, which means alliance in the local Sango language, but have previously fought one another. For instance, in September 2011 fighting between the CPJP and the UFDR left at least 50 people dead and more than 700 homes destroyed. Insurgent leaders say a 2007 peace accord allowing them to join the regular army wasn't fully implemented and are demanding payments to former combatants among other things. Rebel groups also feel the government has neglected their home areas in the north and particularly the northeast, said Filip Hilgert, a researcher with Belgium-based International Peace Information Service.
In northern Mali, the Islamist rebels are motivated in large part by religion. Al-Qaida fighters chant Quranic verses under the Sahara sun , displaying deep, ideological commitment. They consider north Mali as "Islamic territory" and say they will fight to the death to defend it. They also want to use the territory to expand the reach of al-Qaida-linked groups to other countries. This would seem to make other countries more motivated to intervene in Mali than in Central African Republic, but the challenges are so steep and convoluted that an intervention mission is still on the drawing board.

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EU says Iran not responded to nuclear talks proposal

 The European Union has proposed a time and place for further talks on Iran's nuclear program, but Iran has yet to respond, an EU spokesman said on Friday.
Iran said earlier on Friday it had agreed to resume talks in January with six major powers - represented by the EU - but the EU spokesman said Tehran had not yet replied to proposals made on December 31.
"We offered dates and a venue, but we are still waiting to hear back from Iran," said Michael Mann, spokesman for EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton, who leads negotiations on behalf of the United States, Russia, France, Britain, Germany and China.
Mann declined to say which dates and venue the EU had proposed.
The countries involved in the talks - particularly in the West - want to rein in Iran's uranium enrichment work - which Tehran says is for peaceful purposes only but which produces material which, if processed further, can be used to make nuclear bombs.
There was no breakthrough in three rounds of talks since April 2012. But neither side has been willing to break off totally, partly because of concerns this could lead to war if Israel attacks Iran - something it has threatened to do if the Islamic Republic looks close to getting nuclear weapons

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Pakistani girl shot by Taliban leaves UK hospital

LONDON (AP) — Three months after she was shot in the head for daring to say girls should be able to get an education, a 15-year-old Pakistani hugged her nurses and smiled as she walked out of a Birmingham hospital.
Malala Yousufzai waved to a guard and smiled shyly as she cautiously strode down the hospital corridor talking to nurses in images released Friday by the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham.
"She is quite well and happy on returning home — as we all are," Malala's father, Ziauddin, told The Associated Press.
Malala, who was released Thursday, will live with her parents and two brothers in Britain while she continues to receive treatment. She will be admitted again in the next month for another round of surgery to rebuild her skull.
Experts have been optimistic that Malala, who was airlifted from Pakistan in October to receive specialized medical care, has a good chance of recovery because the brains of teenagers are still growing and can better adapt to trauma.
"Malala is a strong young woman and has worked hard with the people caring for her to make excellent progress in her recovery," said Dr. Dave Rosser, the medical director for University Hospitals Birmingham. "Following discussions with Malala and her medical team, we decided that she would benefit from being at home with her parents and two brothers."
The Taliban targeted Malala because of her relentless objection to the group's regressive interpretation of Islam that limits girls' access to education. She was shot while returning home from school in Pakistan's scenic Swat Valley on Oct. 9.
Her case won worldwide recognition, and the teen became a symbol for the struggle for women's rights in Pakistan. In an indication of her reach, she made the shortlist for Time magazine's "Person of the Year" for 2012.
The militants have threatened to target Malala again because they say she promotes "Western thinking," but a security assessment in Britain concluded the risk was low in releasing her to her family. British police have provided security for her at the hospital, but West Midlands Police refused to comment on any security precautions for Malala or her family going forward.
Pakistani doctors removed a bullet that entered her head and traveled toward her spine before Malala's family decided to send her to Britain for specialized treatment. Pakistan is paying.
Pakistan also appointed Malala's father as its education attache in Birmingham for at least three years, meaning Malala is likely to remain in Britain for some time.
Hospital authorities say Malala can read and speak, but cited patient confidentiality when asked whether she is well enough to continue her education in Britain.
While little has been made public about Malala's medical condition, younger brains recover more fully from trauma because they are still growing. Dr. Anders Cohen, chief of neurosurgery at the Brooklyn Hospital Center in New York, estimated she might recover up to 85 percent of the cognitive ability she had before — more than enough to be functional.
"She'd be able to move on with life, maybe even become an activist again," said Cohen, who is not involved in Malala's treatment.
In the Swat Valley, people reacted with joy at the news of her release. Family and friends handed out sweets to neighbors in Malala's hometown of Mingora.
"Obviously we all are jubilant over her rapid recovery, and we hope that she will soon fully recover and would return back to her home town at an appropriate time," said Mahmoodul Hasan, Malala's 35-year-old cousin. Like Malala's father, he runs a private school in Mingora.
But the Swat Valley remains a tense place. Only last month, several hundred students in Mingora protested plans to have their school named after Malala, saying it would make the institution a target for the Taliban.
Malala's father vowed to return to Pakistan with his family once Malala is fully recovered.
"I thank the whole of Pakistan and all other well-wishers for praying for her and our family," he said. "What I am doing here is all temporary, and God willing we all will return to our homeland.

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Why so much secrecy around Chávez's health? Venezuela's not alone.

The government of Hugo Chávez has, for the first time, characterized the Venezuelan leader’s health condition as “severe” following his Dec. 11 surgery in Cuba for a recurrence of cancer.
But the announcement Thursday night is unlikely to put an end to the rumor mill that has swirled in the past three weeks in the Andean country.
While everyone is worked up over President Chávez's health status, his administration is not necessarily an anomaly in keeping relatively mum. From dictators who are unable to envision their countries without them at the helm, to leaders of western democracies who attempt to pursue political projects despite medical setbacks, secrecy is often the norm.
“It is a long-standing pattern,” says Jerrold Post, who co-wrote "When Illness Strikes the Leader: The Dilemma of the Captive King" and is director of the political psychology program at George Washington University.
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'TELL US THE TRUTH'
Norm or not, the lack of news has kept people talking. Type in #DiganLaVerdadSobreChavez, or #TellUsTheTruthAboutChavez, and the trending Twitter topic reveals the state of speculation that has become the state of Venezuela since Chávez traveled to Havana for treatment last month.
No one has heard from him since.
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He’s fine. He’s dead. He’s in a coma. He’s on life support. He’s recovering. You name it – any scenario you wish to believe has been posited. And that’s largely because no one knows. Since Chávez first announced he was ill, in 2011, no medical report has detailed exactly what he faces or what his prognosis is. The government has said that it is keeping the public informed of his health status, as the president himself wishes, but in reality their reports have raised more questions than answers, even as they accuse the opposition of spreading rumors in a form of “psychological war.”
The opposition, for their part, is outraged, demanding more specificity, that the Venezuelan people be told the “whole truth” of the status of the country’s leader.
WHAT DOES SECRECY TELL US?
From former US presidents Ronald Reagan to Franklin Roosevelt, the states of health of leaders was carefully curated by administrations. In one oft-cited case, French President Francois Mitterrand hid his cancer diagnosis from the public for over a decade before being forced to step down. “Yet every year the doctor dutifully said he was in fine health,” says Dr. Post.
In some cases the secrecy reflects different historical social mores about privacy and the public's right to information. And in many cases it was also an effort not to minimize a leader’s mandate.
But in an age of social media, such secrecy is not tolerated – or even possible. The recent health statuses of other Latin American leaders facing illness, for example, including the presidents of Paraguay and Brazil, have been promptly released to the public.
In fact, Pedro Burelli, a former member of the executive board of Petróleos de Venezuela and today a political analyst in Washington who is critical of Chávez, says that the leader chose treatment in Cuba, where there is no free press, for the guarantee of secrecy.
“The natural tendency would have been for him to go to Brazil,” Mr. Burelli says, as it boasts among the best cancer treatment centers in Latin America. It’s also where other leaders in the region have been treated.
But in a democracy with a robust press, Burelli says, “Chávez feared that information [about his condition] would filter out.” Instead, he chose "sub-optimal care" in Cuba, in Burelli’s opinion, in order to keep his medical condition tightly concealed.
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IMAGINING THE FUTURE
In fact, Fidel Castro temporarily stepped down in 2006 and permanently in 2008, after his own health crisis was disclosed only as an intestinal problem and has been a “state secret” ever since. Over the years, Twitter has alighted with speculation of his health, especially after a long period out of the spotlight. Inevitably he has appeared again, either on television or with his name on a written column in the state-run Granma newspaper.
Mr. Pope says that in the case of leaders such as Castro or Chávez, the secrecy is linked to an inability to imagine their countries without them. “We are talking about [an individual], who has totally entwined his own identity with that of Venezuela,” Pope says.
It is possible that the newest announcement on Chávez’s health status by Venezuela’s Minister of Communication and Information, Ernesto Villegas, represents a move toward transparency on the part of the government. But now Venezuelans are speculating why he made the announcement. And he also failed to mention the scheduled Jan. 10 inauguration of Chávez, who won a fourth term in office in Oct. 7 elections.
Instead, Mr. Villegas condemned the "psychological war unleashed by transnational media about the health of the Head of State, with the ultimate goal of destabilizing the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela,” he said.
Twitter accounts are likely to stay as active, and as speculative, until the government gives more clarity.

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Israel tells underweight models to gain weight or get off the runway

“You’re a knockout! Did you gain a little weight?” Israeli fashion photographer and model agent Adi Barkan crows as he greets one of his top models, a towering brunette decked out in a chic black minidress surrounded by the exuberant chaos of the photo shoot in downtown Tel Aviv.
This is a celebratory week for Mr. Barkan, as a new law championed by the fashion giant took effect Jan. 1, banning the use of underweight models in local ads and on the catwalk. Its aim is to help curb a rise in eating disorders among those in the fashion industry and the general public.
“Beautiful is not underweight, beautiful is not anorexic,” says Knesset member Rachel Adato, who helped push the law through. “A revolution has begun against the perception of beauty in Israel, [and] this law shatters the anorexic ideal serving as an example for the country’s youth.”
Daria Keller, one of Barkan’s star models, came to the Simply-U agency from an agency where she says they tried to convince her that her “fullness” would stand in the way of her career. Barkan says she has the perfect measurements. Today, she smiles into the camera with natural confidence.
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“When I was 16, I ate only an apple for three full days, but now I want to stay as Daria,” says Ms. Keller, who has been modeling since that age.
The new law, known as the “photoshop law,” requires models to present their employers with a current doctor’s note confirming that they meet a minimum body mass index (BMI) – a calculation of weight to height proportion – of 18.5, which is considered the lowest threshold for a healthy weight. Advertisements featuring models who are “photoshopped” or otherwise digitally altered to make them appear thinner must be clearly marked as manipulated images.
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'WE ARE THE PROBLEM'
Barkan says that he has always seen the campaign to promote healthy body images as a matter of life and death.
When a 15-year-old girl named Katy came to him in 1997 for help in finding modeling jobs, he instead immediately brought her to the hospital, where he sat with her every night to make sure she ate. Shortly after Katy was released from the hospital, Barkan appeared as a guest on a morning television show. The host said to Barkan, "I want to show you something, a girl whose life you saved," and Katy appeared on stage to tell her story and express her gratitude, Barkan recalls.
After his television appearance, Barkan received 174 phone calls from women pleading “Help me, I’m going to die,” he recalls.
“I saw them all – children, women – everybody wanting to be good-looking. When I asked them, 'What does it mean?' they said, 'The girls that you shoot.' Then I understood that we are the problem,” Barkan says.
In 2007, when another client, a girl named Hila Elmalich who was diagnosed with anorexia, died in his arms at the hospital, he was spurred to greater action – campaigning for legislation that would help suppress the rising trend of underweight models.
“We went out on the balcony and she started to smoke a cigarette. She had a heart attack, and fell down upon me. Right then, I took an oath that I would not give up until I pass this law,” Barkan says.
REDEFINING BEAUTY
His campaign to raise awareness of anorexia, which he had initiated three years earlier with the coordination of Ms. Adato, the Knesset member, gained momentum, despite the fact that illness remained relatively unacknowledged in Israel. In March 2012 the law was finally pushed through the Knesset.
Adato, a former lawyer and gynecologist, says she hoped it would promote a healthy body image among Israeli women, and consequently lower the rates of anorexia and other eating disorders. As is the case in many other countries, eating disorders in Israel have risen with globalization and the subsequent import of American goods and culture, say experts here.
Some 3 percent of Israeli girls between the ages of 11 and 18 suffer from eating disorders, a rate similar to other industrialized Western countries, says Sigal Gooldin, a Hebrew University medical sociologist.
The law is a “symbolic achievement” in the battle to confront eating disorders, she says, but admits that it’s a “small step if girls are still consuming the same popular images and influenced by their surroundings."
A HARSH SPOTLIGHT
The concept of extreme thinness as the beauty ideal exploded with the rise of British supermodel Twiggy in the 1960s and Kate Moss in the 1990s. Critics say that the impossible standards promoted by designers and agencies have led to an epidemic in eating disorders, especially in young women.
The deaths of young models from complications of eating disorders in recent years have put the fashion industry in the hot seat, and put more pressure on governments to take action to change industry norms.
Italy and India banned underweight models from the catwalk in 2006. In the US and Britain, the fashion industry has internal guidelines because legislative restrictions on the industry are considered an infringement on commercial freedoms.
Despite potential roadblocks in implementation, including resistance from within the model community and the relevance of the law only to Israeli advertising companies, the law is a desperately needed response to a growing social crisis, says Dana Weinberg, director of the organization Women and their Bodies, which promotes healthy attitudes among Jewish and Arab women in Israel.
Like many other Western countries, Israel sees its model gliteratti as national treasures. Daily paparazzi shots and other snippets of their daily life regularly flood Israeli websites and social media. "The very fact that the law was passed sends a significant message against extreme thinness,” Ms. Weinberg says.
The flood of American cultural images, often cited as a key cause of eating disorders, may be a big factor in the rising rates of eating disorders, but US influence may also have spurred awareness of and openness to treating the problem.
In both the US and Israel, experts believe that these illnesses often go unreported because of social stigmas, but the estimated rate of eating disorders in both countries is somewhere between 2 and 3 percent. Barkan says that until Ms. Elmalich's death in 2007, there was little awareness of eating disorders in Israel, making his crusade against the fashion industry's warped beauty ideals a daunting task.
PUSHBACK
Some in the modeling community are skeptical that the law can have a real impact, and argue that legislation should focus on health rather than weight. Some models insist that genetics, not eating choices, determine their weight, and resent what they say is a punishment from the government. There is not yet a proposal for a way to evaluate the less quantifiable measure of health.
The Israeli model and television host Yael Goldman called the new law “absurd,” saying "models were always skinny and will always be, that’s the way it is.”
Daria Keller begs to differ.
"Today, models don’t have to be afraid, from themselves, also,” she says, referring to the growing social acceptance of average-sized models. “They can say, 'I can eat pizza, or a hamburger, because actually we’re too smart to ruin our lives for this.

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Myanmar launches air-strikes on Kachin rebels

Heavy fighting between the Myanmar Army and the rebel Kachin Independence Army (KIA), is raising concern that a major escalation of violence is under way in the region, casting a shadow over Myanmar's much-touted reforms.
The Myanmar Army offensive – which includes the use of helicopter gunships and fighter jets – comes after weeks of heavy fighting at outposts about 10 miles outside the KIA headquarters on the Myanmar-China frontier.
The government of Myanmar (also known as Burma) and the KIA signed a cease-fire in 1994, but that came apart in June 2011, even as the government embarked on reforms that include tentative cease-fires with some of the myriad other ethnic minority armed groups that have long fought in the border regions.
With peace talks between the government and KIA stalled, President Thein Sein has told the Army only to fight in self-defense in Kachin, but the latest violence could signal that this request has been rescinded, or that the reformist president is being ignored by the Army.
“The situation is very tense. The bombers are bombing just about four or five miles from the town here,” says Joseph Nbwi Naw, a Kachin Catholic priest in the KIA headquarters Laiza, a valley town separated from Yunnan, China, only by the 1-ft. deep, 20-yard-wide Jeyang River.
“People are digging trenches and foxholes in the town,” says La Nan, KIA spokesperson.
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Ethnic groups in the northern part of the country have long accused the government of repression, and have been fighting for greater autonomy.
The Kachin – supported by a smaller militia known as the All Burma Students Democratic Front – countered a Myanmar Army attempt to resupply soldiers near the front line Dec. 14, by overrunning an Army position near a Buddhist temple on the main road from Laiza to Myitkina, the government-held state capital of the Kachin region – upping the ante in a grueling 18-month war.
Since the fighting ramped up in mid December, at least one civilian and an unverifiable numbers of soldier militia members have died.
La Nan told the Monitor Wednesday that “our people in Pangwa say that the Burmese jets flew 1 kilometer into China yesterday before attacking us,” echoing claims posted online alongside numerous video clips of Myanmar helicopters and jets attacking KIA positions and flying over camps set up for some of the around 100,000 civilians made homeless by the fighting.
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The Myanmar government first denied and then acknowledged that the Army is carrying out the airstrikes, after accusing the KIA of attacking power stations during the Christmas holidays. All told, the KIA carried out “101 mine attacks in Kachin State and from 18 May 2011 to 21 December 2012,” according to the government mouthpiece The New Light of Myanmar, implying that the government considers the attacks a reaction to rebel attacks.
Questions about the latest fighting sent to the Myanmar president's office had gone unanswered at time of writing, but a report on the government's Myawaddy news said that the Army seized a rebel outpost on Dec. 30 "with the help of air strikes in the region."
Kachin is the northernmost state in Myanmar and is a mountainous and resource-rich region known for its jade. Fighting has centered around lucrative mines near the town of Hpakant in recent months.
The KIA was set up in 1961 after the government reneged on promises to devolve powers to the Kachin and other ethnic groups, as a military junta seized power at the start of what turned out to be five decades of Army rule.
The estimated 1 million Kachin are mostly Baptist Christian, in a country of almost 60 million where close to 90 percent of people are thought to be Buddhist and some 70 percent are Burman, the majority ethnic group.
The KIA, once accused of part-funding operations through opium cultivation, has an estimated 10,000 soldiers but is mostly armed with light weaponry, while the 400,000 Myanmar Army is among the best-equipped in southeast Asia, with a long history of brutality in the hill and jungle ethnic minority borderlands.
Nlam Bok Mai, a Kachin mother who is among more than 7,000 people living in cramped shacks in Jeyang camp outside Laiza, told the Monitor that she fled with her family in June 2011 as the Myanmar Army approached their village, 25 miles away: “We did not wait there for the Army to come, we did not want to get caught in any fighting.

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Egypt's Brotherhood says UAE arrests unfounded

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood said on Wednesday some of its members had been wrongfully arrested in United Arab Emirates (UAE) on allegations of helping to train local Islamists in subversion tactics.
"I know 11 people were detained. I know that some of them are from the Brotherhood," said Mahmoud Ghozlan, a Brotherhood spokesman in Cairo. "The claim that they are a cell seeking to destabilize the country is devoid of truth."
The arrests came to light on Tuesday when a UAE newspaper reported the authorities had arrested an "Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood cell", citing an unnamed source.
The oil-rich UAE, which has long voiced distrust of the Muslim Brotherhood that helped propel Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi to power this year, arrested about 60 Islamists last month, accusing them of being linked to the Egyptian group and plotting to undermine governments in the Gulf region.
In what appeared to be an effort to ease tensions, Egypt's intelligence chief, General Mohamed Shehata, headed to the UAE for talks, airport officials said.
An aide to the Egyptian president also handed over a message from Mursi to UAE's president, a statement from the Egyptian presidency said, without giving details.
"We are in contact with the authorities there and will see what will happen in the next period," Foreign Minister Mohamed Kamel Amr was quoted as saying by the state news agency.
The son of one of the arrested Egyptians said in Cairo that his father, Ali Sonbol, is a medical doctor and is not involved in political activities.
"They didn't say where they were taking him and what were the charges," Ahmed Sonbol told Reuters. "The Egyptian embassy only assured us that he was detained by UAE authorities and he is well."
UAE officials were not available for comment.
Relations between Egypt and the UAE soured after Egyptian strongman Hosni Mubarak - a longtime Gulf ally - was toppled in Egypt's 2011 revolution.
Last month, UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahayan summoned Egypt's ambassador over claims carried by Egyptian media the UAE was behind a plot against Egypt's leadership, saying they were "fabricated".
Thanks to their state-sponsored cradle-to-grave welfare systems, the UAE and other Gulf Arab monarchies have largely avoided the Arab Spring unrest which has unseated long-serving rulers elsewhere in the past two years.
The Brotherhood has sought to reassure Gulf states it has no plan to push for political change beyond Egypt's borders.

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5 female teachers killed: Pakistan aid work imperiled

Pakistani police on Wednesday searched for the gunmen behind the brazen murder of five teachers and two health workers, amid fears that public health campaigns would suffer and lead to a resurgence of polio and other preventable diseases.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, which occurred Tuesday in Swabi, a city in the troubled northwest. The Pakistani Taliban has in the past vowed to target, among others, health workers involved in campaigns to wipe out polio.
Last year, 15 health and aid workers were killed in Pakistan, making the country one of the most dangerous in the world for aid workers, according to the British-based consultancy Humanitarian Outcomes. Most were women. Development sector experts now express concerns that those working on the ground will shy away from assignments.
“In the past, local volunteers, be they teachers, medical workers or social mobilizers, considered themselves safe and worked hand in hand with foreign aid workers and paramilitary personnel in even the most dire of circumstances,” says Hassan Belal Zaidi, a development and communication specialist, based in Islamabad. “But now, it would not be unreasonable for them to think twice and even refuse to travel to remote parts of the country if they know there is a chance they may get shot.”
The six women and one man were traveling in a van when gunmen on motorcycles stopped it Tuesday afternoon after it left a children's community center, according to Abdur Rasheed Khan, chief of the Swabi police force. The four gunmen took a 4-year-old boy belonging to one of the women from the van, and then raked the vehicle with gunfire, he said. The child was unharmed and was later turned over to police by bystanders, he said.
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These murders come a few weeks after nine health workers with national polio campaign were killed in different parts of the country in what police said was a coordinated attack. That prompted the Pakistani government and the United Nations agencies to suspend their vaccination drive for the disease, which has seen a uptick in cases in recent years.
Pakistan is one out of the three countries where polio persists; at least 57 cases were registered in 2012. The World Health Organization last year warned Pakistan that it could face travel and visa restrictions and sanctions imposed by other countries if polio continues to spread.
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Distrust of public health initiatives like the polio campaign is particularly strong in districts of Pakistan where religious extremists have tightened their grip. That sentiment deepened in 2011 after the US raid that killed Osama bin Laden. A CIA-led operation to confirm Mr. bin Laden’s location in the city of Abbottabad used a hepatitis B vaccination campaign to gather DNA evidence on bin Laden.
The recent attacks are likely to further frighten people from working with foreign and Pakistani aid and development organizations, says Bushra Arain, chairwoman for the All Pakistan Lady Health Workers Welfare Association, which counts more than 100,000 registered members.
“We are the backbone of Pakistani health sector. If the attacks continue, with the state showing the inability it currently is demonstrating in stopping us from being targeted, we will stop working,” Ms. Arain says.
The Taliban and affiliated groups are targeting aid workers for several reasons, says Khadim Hussain, who heads one of the largest private charity school networks in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. First, the militants think aid groups have an anti-Muslim agenda, spying on the local population, a suspicion that was deepened by the raid on bin Laden. Secondly, the groups equate health campaigns with modernizing society, in opposition to some fundamentalist tenets for Islamic radicals. Some groups also believe the vaccine is intended to sterilize Muslim children.
“If the attacks by the Taliban continue, there will be widespread de-motivation amongst aid workers, which I am already witnessing,” Mr. Hussain says.
While some development advocates say there needs to be a coordinated, public response by Pakistani and foreign NGOs to the attacks, others say the government should stop public education campaigns altogether and just allow aid workers to operate quietly.
“The less attention we get, the less vulnerable we will be as targets for the terrorists,” Ms. Arain says.
“We are involved with anti-polio drive, infant health awareness programs, family planning, etc. and if the government does not pull its act together, many deadly diseases can spread rapidly in Pakistan,” she says. “The situation can get out of hand.

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Gunmen kidnap seven Pakistani soldiers

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Gunmen kidnapped seven soldiers from a bus in Pakistan on Wednesday, military officials said, just days after Taliban forces executed 21 pro-government paramilitaries they had seized.
The gunmen took the seven soldiers and let go a sweeper on the bus with them, one military official said. The gunmen were wearing military uniforms, other sources said.
The men were travelling between army headquarters in Rawalpindi and their stations in the northern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa when they were taken off their bus in Jand in Punjab province.
Taliban commander Tariq Afridi, who has forces in the area, was not available for comment and no Taliban spokesman returned calls seeking comment.
Last week the Taliban kidnapped 23 paramilitary pro-government forces. Twenty-one of their bodies, bound, blindfolded and shot in the head, were discovered on Sunday. One man escaped and another was badly wounded.
A military offensive over the past two years has clawed back swathes of Pakistan from the Taliban.
But the insurgents are still able to organize kidnaps and killings over wide swathes of the country and high-profile attacks have increased over the past month. Elections are scheduled for the spring and the insurgency will be a key issue.
Poorly trained police, overburdened courts and corruption have hampered Pakistan's ability to crack down on militancy.
On Monday, the bullet-riddled bodies of nine men were found in North Waziristan, local tribesmen said. A Taliban spokesman claimed they were fighters that had been taken prisoner over the past few months. Military officials did not return calls seeking comment.
In August, the Taliban kidnapped 17 soldiers and beheaded them.

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Former Chilean military officials held in singer's 1973 slaying

At least four former military officials were detained in Chile on Wednesday for their alleged role in the slaying of singer-songwriter Victor Jara during the dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet.
Jara was killed days after the coup that ousted left-leaning President Salvador Allende, and his death became a symbol of the political violence and human rights abuses that ravaged Latin America in the 1970s.
Chilean prosecutors have accused two former lieutenants, Hugo Sanchez and Pedro Barrientos, of fatally shooting Jara and named six others as accomplices in the 1973 case.
Sanchez was detained on Wednesday after surrendering to police, the judge in the case said. An extradition request will be made for Barrientos, who lives in the United States.
Three other men, accused of being accomplices in Jara's killing, also were being held at a military base after turning themselves in. Another suspect was expected to hand himself over to police, his lawyers said.
Jara, author of well-known songs such as "Te Recuerdo Amanda" ("I Remember You Amanda") and "El Derecho a Vivir en Paz" ("The Right to Live in Peace"), was arrested along with students and teachers at the State Technical University.
He was taken to the Chile Stadium, a sports venue that was used as a torture center in the days after the September 11, 1973, coup and is now named after Jara.
According to witnesses, he was tortured for several days - his hands battered with the butt of a revolver - before he was shot dead on September 16. His bullet-riddled body was found dumped near a cemetery three days later.
Jara's family has welcomed the eight arrest orders and hope progress in the case can spur advances in investigations of other dictatorship-era crimes.
"If Victor's case serves as an example, we're pushing forward in demanding justice for Victor with the hope that justice will follow for everyone," Jara's widow, Joan Jara, told reporters.
Jara's case has been closed several times but the investigation was revived in 2003 by Judge Juan Guzman, who also investigated Pinochet over human rights abuses.
Some 3,000 people were kidnapped and killed during Pinochet's 1973-1990 rule. Another 28,000 people were tortured during military rule, among them former President Michelle Bachelet.

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Nurse who died after Kate hoax call was from India

LONDON (AP) — A nurse found dead days after she took a crank call about the pregnant Duchess of Cambridge was originally from India, British police said Saturday, as details began to trickle out about the woman whose death has sparked anger at the Australian radio DJs behind the hoax. Jacintha Saldanha, 46, was found dead early Friday at nurses' housing provided by London's King Edward VII hospital, where Prince William's wife, the former Kate Middleton, was being treated for acute morning sickness this week. Police released a grainy photo of Saldanha on Saturday. She had lived in Bristol in southwestern England with her family for the past nine years, Scotland Yard confirmed. Police said her death is being treated as "unexplained," though they said they didn't find anything suspicious. A coroner will make a determination on the cause next week. Police have made no connection between her death and the prank call, but people from London to Sydney have been making the assumption that she died because of stress from the call. Flowers were left outside the hospital's nurses' building. Attached to the red, white and blue flowers, a note read: "Dear Jacintha, our thoughts are with you and your family. From all your fellow nurses, we bless your soul. God bless." A man identified as Saldanha's driving instructor Jeff Sellick, told Sky News he was in "complete shock" at her death, saying "it's just such a shame, she was such a nice person." In a statement, Saldanha's family said they were "deeply saddened" by the death and asked for privacy. Saldanha had worked for four years at the hospital. She took the hoax call Tuesday by the two DJs from 2DayFM, and transferred the call to the nurse caring for the duchess. During the call, a woman using the often-mimicked voice of Britain's monarch asked about the duchess' health. She was told by the second nurse who took the call from Saldanha that the duchess, the former Kate Middleton, "hasn't had any retching with me and she's been sleeping on and off." The recorded conversation sparked international headlines, and the DJs, Mel Greig and Michael Christian, soon apologized for the prank. They have said they will not return to the station until further notice, though the chief executive of the station's parent company has said he stands behind them. The Australian Communications and Media Authority, which regulates radio broadcasting, says it has received complaints about the prank and is discussing the matter with the Sydney-based station, though it has not yet begun an investigation. The station has a history of controversy, including a series of "Heartless Hotline" shows in which disadvantage people were offered a prize that could be taken away from them by listeners. St. James's Palace, the office of the duchess and her husband Prince William, expressed sadness at Saldanha's death, but insisted that it had not complained about the hoax. King Edward VII's Hospital said it did not reprimand Saldanha, nor had plans to discipline her. Officials from St. James's Palace have said the duchess is not yet 12 weeks pregnant. The child would be the first for her and William.

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Billionaire media baron Silvio Berlusconi, who resigned in disgrace a year ago with Italy tottering through the European debt crisis, on Saturday announced he is running for a fourth term as premier. Berlusconi, 76, reluctantly stepped down in November 2011 after pressure from international financial markets. He was later convicted of tax fraud and has faced sexual misconduct allegations. An unelected government of technocrats, led by widely respected economist Mario Monti, was appointed to replace him. Opinion polls have seen the popularity of Berlusconi's Freedom People Party plunge to far below that of Italy's other large party, the center-left. But he is confident he can achieve victory. "I'm running to win," Berlusconi told reporters outside the training facilities of his soccer team AC Milan. No date has been set for elections, linked to the end of Parliament's term in late April. But Berlusconi's decision earlier in the week to yank the support of his party — Parliament's largest — for Monti's anti-crisis government increased the likelihood that Italy's president would dissolve the legislature and call early elections. "It seems to me that March 10 has been indicated" as a possible date for early elections, "and that seems a date that's fine with me," Berlusconi said. Monti was flying back from a conference in France for a meeting Saturday evening at the presidential palace to take the pulse of political tensions. President Giorgio Napolitano has made clear he wants Parliament to at least pass a vital budget law later this month and avoid a "precipitous" demise amid mounting political uncertainty.

PARIS (AP) — A man was shot dead and several houses were bombed on the French island of Corsica, a vacation destination that has seen a wave of gang killings this year and is also home to a simmering nationalist movement. The attacks Friday night come after the series of killings that has outraged France and prompted the government to vow to stamp out the violence that has long been allowed to simmer on the island in the Mediterranean Sea known for its mountain vistas and rugged beaches. The Paris prosecutor's office said Saturday it is investigating the series of explosions, including their possible links to terrorist or criminal organizations. The office said at least 17 houses were hit on Friday night; no one was hurt in the attacks and most are believed to have been at vacation homes. TV footage showed broken glass littering the floors of one of the homes attacked Friday night. It sat on a cliff overlooking the water and looked to still be under construction. Protecting Corsica's wild landscapes has long been part of the nationalist fight and coastal homes have drawn particular ire. Many are built on land that is supposed to be protected and left undeveloped. Meanwhile, Interior Minister Manuel Valls said that on Friday a man was arrested in possession of explosives. It was not clear if he was suspected in the bombings. Authorities were treating the shooting death of a man on the island separately. Corsica has seen more than a dozen such murders this year, apparently carried out by criminal gangs. But the violence — well known to residents — recently burst onto the national scene with the killings of a prominent businessman and defense lawyer. The government vowed to restore order, and Valls said Friday's arrest was proof those efforts were bearing fruit. But the wave of bombings is sure to increase the pressure even further and could arouse suspicions that the homegrown nationalist movement is radicalizing again. Twenty years ago, the island was the scene of dozens of bombings, most of them linked to the movement, which has fought for Corsica's distinct language and culture since the island was definitively taken over by the French under Napoleon in 1796. Saturday marks the anniversary of the adoption of the island's 18th-century constitution and is celebrated by some as the island's national day.

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Berlusconi says he is running again for premier

Billionaire media baron Silvio Berlusconi, who resigned in disgrace a year ago with Italy tottering through the European debt crisis, on Saturday announced he is running for a fourth term as premier. Berlusconi, 76, reluctantly stepped down in November 2011 after pressure from international financial markets. He was later convicted of tax fraud and has faced sexual misconduct allegations. An unelected government of technocrats, led by widely respected economist Mario Monti, was appointed to replace him. Opinion polls have seen the popularity of Berlusconi's Freedom People Party plunge to far below that of Italy's other large party, the center-left. But he is confident he can achieve victory. "I'm running to win," Berlusconi told reporters outside the training facilities of his soccer team AC Milan. No date has been set for elections, linked to the end of Parliament's term in late April. But Berlusconi's decision earlier in the week to yank the support of his party — Parliament's largest — for Monti's anti-crisis government increased the likelihood that Italy's president would dissolve the legislature and call early elections. "It seems to me that March 10 has been indicated" as a possible date for early elections, "and that seems a date that's fine with me," Berlusconi said. Monti was flying back from a conference in France for a meeting Saturday evening at the presidential palace to take the pulse of political tensions. President Giorgio Napolitano has made clear he wants Parliament to at least pass a vital budget law later this month and avoid a "precipitous" demise amid mounting political uncertainty.

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Anger at Australian radio station over royal hoax

The sudden death of a nurse who unwittingly accepted a prank call to a London hospital about Prince William's pregnant wife Kate has shocked Britain and Australia, and sparked an angry backlash Saturday from some who argue the DJs who carried out the hoax should be held responsible. At first, the call by two irreverent Australian DJs posing as royals was picked up by news outlets around the world as an amusing anecdote about the royal pregnancy. Some complained about the invasion of privacy, the hospital was embarrassed, and the radio presenters sheepishly apologized. But the prank took a dark twist Friday with the death of nurse Jacintha Saldanha, a 46-year-old mother of two, three days after she took the hoax call. Police have not yet determined Saldanha's cause of death, but people from London to Sydney have been making the assumption that she died because of stress from the call. King Edward VII's Hospital, where the former Kate Middleton was being treated for acute morning sickness this week, wrote a strongly-worded letter to the 2DayFM radio station's parent company Southern Cross Austereo, condemning the "truly appalling" hoax and urging it to take steps to ensure such an incident would never happen again. "The immediate consequence of these premeditated and ill-considered actions was the humiliation of two dedicated and caring nurses who were simply doing their job tending to their patients," the letter read. "The longer term consequence has been reported around the world and is, frankly, tragic beyond words." The hospital did not comment when asked whether it believed the prank call had directly caused Saldanha's death, only saying that the protest letter spoke for itself. DJs Mel Grieg and Michael Christian, who apologized for the prank on Tuesday, took down their Twitter accounts after they were bombarded by thousands of abusive comments. Rhys Holleran, CEO of Southern Cross Austereo, said the pair have been offered counseling and were taken off the air indefinitely. No one could have foreseen the tragic consequences of the prank, he stressed. "I spoke to both presenters early this morning and it's fair to say they're completely shattered," Holleran told reporters on Saturday. "These people aren't machines, they're human beings," he said. "We're all affected by this." Details about Saldanha have been trickling out since the duty nurse's body was found at apartments provided by the private hospital, which has treated a line of royals before, including Prince Philip, who was hospitalized there for a bladder infection in June. The nurse, who was originally from India, had lived with her partner Benedict Barboza and a teenage son and daughter in Bristol, in southwestern England, for the past nine years. The hospital praised her as a "first-class nurse" who was well-respected and popular among colleagues during her four years working there. Just before dawn on Tuesday, Saldanha was looking after her patients when the phone rang. A woman pretending to be Queen Elizabeth II asked to speak to the duchess, and, believing the caller, Saldanha transferred the call to a fellow nurse caring for the duchess, who spoke to the two DJs about Kate's condition live on air. During the call — which was put online and later broadcast on news channels worldwide — Grieg mimicked the Britain's monarch's voice and asked about the duchess' health. She was told Kate "hasn't had any retching with me and she's been sleeping on and off." Grieg and Christian, who pretended to be Prince Charles, also discussed with the nurse when they could travel to the hospital to check in on Kate. Three days later, officers responding to reports that a woman was found unconscious discovered Saldanha, who was pronounced dead at the scene. Police didn't release a cause of death, but said they didn't find anything suspicious. A coroner will make a determination on the cause. In the aftermath of Saldanha's death, some speculated about whether the nurse was subject to pressure to resign or about to be punished for the mistake. Royal officials said Prince William and Kate were "deeply saddened," but insisted that the palace had not complained about the hoax. King Edward VII's Hospital also maintained that it did not reprimand Saldanha. "We did not discipline the nurse in question. There were no plans to discipline her," a hospital spokesman said. He declined to provide further details, and did not respond to questions about the second nurse's condition. The Australian Communications and Media Authority, which regulates radio broadcasting, said it has received complaints about the prank and is discussing the matter with the Sydney-based station, which yanked its Facebook page after it received thousands of angry comments. Holleran, the radio executive, would not say who came up with the idea for the call. He only said that "these things are often done collaboratively." He said 2DayFM would work with authorities, but was confident the station hadn't broken any laws, noting that prank calls in radio have been happening "for decades." The station has a history of controversy, including a series of "Heartless Hotline" shows in which disadvantage people were offered a prize that could be taken away from them by listeners. Saldanha's family asked for privacy in a brief statement issued through London police. Flowers were left outside the hospital's nurse's apartments, with one note reading: "Dear Jacintha, our thoughts are with you and your family. From all your fellow nurses, we bless your soul. God bless." Officials from St. James's Palace have said the duchess is not yet 12 weeks pregnant. The child would be the first for her and William.

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UK hospital says royal prank call appalling after nurse death

LONDON/PERTH, Australia (Reuters) - The London hospital that treated Prince William's pregnant wife Kate condemned on Saturday an Australian radio station that made a prank call seeking information about the duchess, after the apparent suicide of a nurse who answered the phone. There has been renewed soul-searching over media ethics after Jacintha Saldanha, 46, the nurse who was duped by the station's call to the King Edward VII hospital, was found dead in staff accommodation nearby on Friday. The owners of Sydney's 2DayFM said it had done nothing wrong and no one could have foreseen the tragic outcome of the stunt, but two leading Australian firms suspended their advertising. The hoax, in which the radio hosts - posing as Britain's Queen Elizabeth and Prince Charles despite Australian accents - successfully inquired after Kate's medical condition, has made worldwide headlines. The hospital's chairman Lord Glenarthur urged the station's owners to ensure that such an incident could never happen again. "It was extremely foolish of your presenters even to consider trying to lie their way through to one of our patients, let alone actually make the call," he said in a letter to Southern Cross Austereo Chairman Max Moore-Wilton. "Then to discover that, not only had this happened, but that the call had been pre-recorded and the decision to transmit approved by your station's management, was truly appalling." The immediate consequence had been the humiliation of two "dedicated and caring" nurses, he said. "The longer term consequence has been reported around the world and is, frankly, tragic beyond words," Glenarthur added. Australians from Prime Minister Julia Gillard to people in the street expressed their sorrow and cringed at how the hoax had crossed the line of acceptability. Two large companies suspended their advertising from the popular Sydney-based station and a media watchdog said it would speak with 2DayFM's owners. The hoax raised concerns about the ethical standards of Australian media, as Britain's own media scramble to agree a new system of self-regulation and avoid state intervention following a damning inquiry into reporting practices. Southern Cross Austereo Chief Executive Rhys Holleran told a news conference in Melbourne on Saturday that the company would work with authorities in any investigation. He said he was "very confident" that the radio station had done nothing illegal. "This is a tragic event that could not have been reasonably foreseen and we are deeply saddened by it. Our primary concern at this stage is for the family of Nurse Saldanha." Holleran added that 2DayFM radio hosts Mel Greig and Michael Christian were "completely shattered" by Saldanha's death. The pair will stay off the air indefinitely, he said. London detectives have sent a request to Sydney police to question the two presenters, Britain's Sunday Times said. "Officers have been in contact with Australian authorities," a spokesman for London's Metropolitan Police said. Two high-profile Australian firms, the Coles supermarket group and phone company Telstra, said they were suspending advertising with the station. Austereo said all advertising on 2DayFM had been shelved until at least Monday in a mark of respect to advertisers whose Facebook pages were inundated with thousands of hate messages. The Twitter accounts of Greig and Christian were removed shortly after news of the tragedy in London broke. SOCIAL MEDIA OUTRAGE Social media were inundated with angry messages to the radio station in what has become the latest shock radio story to rile the Australian public. Earlier this year 2DayFM was reprimanded by Australia's independent communications regulator after a radio host talked a 14-year-old girl into revealing on air that she had been raped. So-called "shock jock" radio announcers are frequently denounced in Australia for their deeply personal and often derogatory attacks on politicians and ordinary citizens. Communications Minister Stephen Conroy said that the independent broadcast regulator, the Australian Communications and Media Authority, had received complaints about the hoax. The media fallout from the tragedy could extend beyond Australia's shores, said British radio presenter Steve Penk, who has made a career out of prank calls. "I think it will probably be the death of the wind-up phone call. I think (British media regulator) Ofcom will wrap it in so much red tape that it will make it almost impossible to get these things on the air," he told Sky News. Saldanha lived with her husband and two children in the western English city of Bristol. She moved to Britain from India around 10 years ago, British media reports said. Her husband's family, who live in the southern Indian state of Karnataka, told news agency Asian News International they would miss their "good-natured and beautiful" relative. "At eight o'clock in the morning, he (Saldanha's husband) rang up to say that she is no more, more than that we do not know about what actually happened. She is dead, that's all," said Camril Barboza, Saldanha's mother-in-law. The British royal family has long had an uneasy relationship with the media, which sank to its lowest after the 1997 death of Prince William's mother Diana in a Paris car crash. Palace officials acted swiftly this summer when a French magazine printed topless photos of Kate on holiday, taking legal action to curb republication. Saldanha's death threatens to cast a pall over the enthusiastic public welcome given to Kate's pregnancy, which dominated newspaper front pages this week.

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